Just Played Beta

[+Guest]

I just played the new game for an hour. I would be more than happy to share my opinions on this forum as soon as a mod can confirm I am legally allowed to...

[presidentk 7]

i just finished playing an hour of the beta as well.....

i believe the non-disclosure agreement ("NDA") prevents us from talking about it

but being the horrible law student I am, i didn't bother reading the document because i was too eager to play the game

in reality tho, you are unlikely to experience any negative repercussions from sharing your thoughts on here

...unless of course ...the mods have a problem with it

...its not like EA/Maxis will be able to figure out who you are.

[NCGAIO 562]

You can be sure that if it is to say how wonderful and amazing is the game so i think you can stay the will!

Now if you want to make scathing criticism then it would not be very advisable.

As for to know who is ... depends on how much you surf on the same ip!

[macvirt 361]

Folks, it is not a beta. It's a demo round. It saves them from making a demo available which could be used as a means toward pirated copies.

But back on topic, as much as I engaged it with the clear perception of "this is not the successor to SimCity 4 but a new game designed for the trends of today" I just find it lacking. But that is me, I prefer deep gameplay. Puzzles where I have to keep track of intrinsic balances between variables to watch for. Immersive gameplay, not casual easy gameplay.

SimCity 2013 is just not for me. It is quick fun, easy, will amuse plenty people. It's just another move away from the gameplay that would keep me up at night. Not to mention that the amount of DLC and Third Party content to give it what it lacks for me is staggering. Regional architecture styles for example, or special buildings, transit functionality, terraforming, DLC with a region of large maps, and so forth. On top of what is relatively pricy for the gameplay it offers for my style of gameplay. No, sorry.

[+Guest]

I thought it sucked. Just my two cents.

[macvirt 361]

I thought it sucked. Just my two cents.

Well yeah, the trick is though to *not* approach it coming from SC4. Then it is an ok game for a bit of quick fun without having to engage the brain too much. Honestly, this is just not the successor to SC4, it is a new title in a franchise developed for todays trends prioritised by publishers for mass marketing.

It's not bad. Unless you really like to immerse yourself and go for deep gameplay. Then it absolutely sucks. But that is not what it is designed for. They can alter that, introducing both immersion and deep gameplay (even "missing" basic functionality or realism aspects). But the sheer amount of DLC that would require constitutes a really interesting financial picture, to say the least.

In a way the situation "as is" has a definite potential to be as full of issues and challenges as the Civ V issues of Firaxis resulting from publisher directives. That game was reduced to a shell, targeted for today's trends as chosen by the publisher, and they are still having quite a hard time reintroducing elements which they removed. But it's all good, because thanks to the same style of marketing the publisher met its set targets for release, and it has a very rewarding road of DLC. No matter how many people regard that as "expensive fixing of a degraded game" This is how it is today.

[The_City_Builder 299]

I love it.

Is that bad?

[presidentk 7]

i'm happy with what i saw so far ...it should be great once all the features are available in the full version of the game

i just hate it when "sequels" are missing things that were in the previous version

[City Planner 121]

I had a good laugh when my time was up and it dumped me onto the Origin pre-order screen. While I knew it was going to be $60.00, after playing around in the beta (*cough* demo, marketing move, *cough*) and then seeing the price tag in cold hard print, it made me laugh.

I'm sorry but this to me is only a little bit better than CXL 2012, and only a furlong better than a Facebook game to me. It lacks details completely and utterly. While it's got quite a few good things going for it, overall it's more of a facebook simcity style game than it is a real simcity style game.

It's not so much that it doesn't live up to SimCity 4, but rather that it doesn't live up to a SimCity game at all IMHO. Oh well, they can never take SC4 away from us, we can continue to play that as long as we please, unlike this one that they could pull the servers 12 months after buying it and be left with a $60.00 placeholder graphics in our Origin games list.

If this is taking the game back to it's roots, they dug way too deep.

[presidentk 7]

i don't get why you guys think it lacks detail...

i found it far more detailed than simcity 4

i like how you can add modules to the buildings

building a city hall is now worth it and the modules you can add to it not only make it look cool but add functionality

..am i missing something?

[Skizzik1 15]

I was on the fence about buying this game and after the beta I have made my decision. I will not be getting this at release. I ran the game at max settings and it looks like garbage. Curved roads are cool to draw, but any lot you build on them overlap the street and just look terrible. Every screenshot that has been released by the developers over the last couple months must have been doctored. EA marketing at it's finest.

[Hoipus 292]

I had a good laugh when my time was up and it dumped me onto the Origin pre-order screen. While I knew it was going to be $60.00, after playing around in the beta (*cough* demo, marketing move, *cough*) and then seeing the price tag in cold hard print, it made me laugh.

I'm sorry but this to me is only a little bit better than CXL 2012, and only a furlong better than a Facebook game to me. It lacks details completely and utterly. While it's got quite a few good things going for it, overall it's more of a facebook simcity style game than it is a real simcity style game.

It's not so much that it doesn't live up to SimCity 4, but rather that it doesn't live up to a SimCity game at all IMHO. Oh well, they can never take SC4 away from us, we can continue to play that as long as we please, unlike this one that they could pull the servers 12 months after buying it and be left with a $60.00 placeholder graphics in our Origin games list.

If this is taking the game back to it's roots, they dug way too deep.

That's the name of one of the achievements, I've found. One of the disasters was locked behind an achievement called "Dug too deep, too greedily.

[7238320 77]

some kinda double post, see below

[flyer2359 92]

I personally really like it. The two big issues I found for me, is that it's wayyy too easy to make money and the maps are too small. Other than that, I love the fact that the city really comes to life.

[7238320 77]

I was not able to 'play' the game. I put all my settings on low, struggled through a herky kerky tutorial and finally gave up after a second hour of trying to lay some roads. Being on a satellite internet, not worth it to me at all - there just wasn't enough to 'grab me'. I guess I was looking for a SimCity 5.3, not this SimCity. Needless to say I canceled my preorder.

I am really happy for the players that are embracing the new SimCity.

It's just not for me.

PS A Beta code from SimCity just hit my inbox (so ironic. )

edit: ... and it's gone!

  Edited January 26, 2013 by 7238320  

[presidentk 7]

i got my beta key from my amazon pre-order

so if i get a normal beta key I will share it with a member on this forum

graphics wise ...i'm running the game on max everything ...butter smooth

but then again, i have a third-gen i7 connected w/ fios

for those who aren't impressed ...please state specifically what it is that you don't like ...i'm interested in your perspective

i agree about the easy money issue ...all my hour-cities so far have been very profitable without me giving any thought to revenue

[Bazkur 34]

I wanted to keep playing! I agree with another poster, don't think of it as SC5. I took the same approach to it as I did CXL or other sims such as Cities in Motion, it's a different game. Had there never been another SC, I'd still be happy to play it. I will say that the city size does seem small. I filled up that tile pretty quickly but there's plenty to keep you busy keeping the city going.

I wanted to keep playing! I agree with another poster, don't think of it as SC5. I took the same approach to it as I did CXL or other sims such as Cities in Motion, it's a different game. Had there never been another SC, I'd still be happy to play it. I will say that the city size does seem small. I filled up that tile pretty quickly but there's plenty to keep you busy keeping the city going.

[Kleineganz 1]

I played through it twice so far. I wish more features were available, but over all I really enjoyed it. Now I'm looking forward to the game even more!

[iowahawkeyedave 8]

Played through the tutorial, so far I like it. I am a bit concerned about the regions being so small, but it's also nice that you can actually see your cities coming to life. Ran pretty good on my 3 year old laptop on medium settings.

I'll give it 8/10. Looking forward to playing the game when it's released. I think the game is a solid base with a good underlying engine and through modding, expansions, etc, maybe we can get bigger regions later on down the road.

[gc6164 36]

I had a good laugh when my time was up and it dumped me onto the Origin pre-order screen. While I knew it was going to be $60.00, after playing around in the beta (*cough* demo, marketing move, *cough*) and then seeing the price tag in cold hard print, it made me laugh.

I'm sorry but this to me is only a little bit better than CXL 2012, and only a furlong better than a Facebook game to me. It lacks details completely and utterly. While it's got quite a few good things going for it, overall it's more of a facebook simcity style game than it is a real simcity style game.

It's not so much that it doesn't live up to SimCity 4, but rather that it doesn't live up to a SimCity game at all IMHO. Oh well, they can never take SC4 away from us, we can continue to play that as long as we please, unlike this one that they could pull the servers 12 months after buying it and be left with a $60.00 placeholder graphics in our Origin games list.

If this is taking the game back to it's roots, they dug way too deep.

^This!

[iowahawkeyedave 8]

I had a good laugh when my time was up and it dumped me onto the Origin pre-order screen. While I knew it was going to be $60.00, after playing around in the beta (*cough* demo, marketing move, *cough*) and then seeing the price tag in cold hard print, it made me laugh.

I'm sorry but this to me is only a little bit better than CXL 2012, and only a furlong better than a Facebook game to me. It lacks details completely and utterly. While it's got quite a few good things going for it, overall it's more of a facebook simcity style game than it is a real simcity style game.

It's not so much that it doesn't live up to SimCity 4, but rather that it doesn't live up to a SimCity game at all IMHO. Oh well, they can never take SC4 away from us, we can continue to play that as long as we please, unlike this one that they could pull the servers 12 months after buying it and be left with a $60.00 placeholder graphics in our Origin games list.

If this is taking the game back to it's roots, they dug way too deep.

To me, it's still better than societies.

It lacks details how so? It is a closed beta with a 1 hour time limit and not even all the buildings are available to be built. Of course it lacks details. It's only really a one hour demo tease not even a closed beta.

It's a more solid base to expand upon than Societies was, that's for sure. Can't really expect it to live up to SC4 since that's been out 10 years, had an expansion, and tons of mods.

[Xenocity 343]

I had a good laugh when my time was up and it dumped me onto the Origin pre-order screen. While I knew it was going to be $60.00, after playing around in the beta (*cough* demo, marketing move, *cough*) and then seeing the price tag in cold hard print, it made me laugh.

I'm sorry but this to me is only a little bit better than CXL 2012, and only a furlong better than a Facebook game to me. It lacks details completely and utterly. While it's got quite a few good things going for it, overall it's more of a facebook simcity style game than it is a real simcity style game.

It's not so much that it doesn't live up to SimCity 4, but rather that it doesn't live up to a SimCity game at all IMHO. Oh well, they can never take SC4 away from us, we can continue to play that as long as we please, unlike this one that they could pull the servers 12 months after buying it and be left with a $60.00 placeholder graphics in our Origin games list.

If this is taking the game back to it's roots, they dug way too deep.

To me, it's still better than societies.

It lacks details how so? It is a closed beta with a 1 hour time limit and not even all the buildings are available to be built. Of course it lacks details. It's only really a one hour demo tease not even a closed beta.

It's a more solid base to expand upon than Societies was, that's for sure. Can't really expect it to live up to SC4 since that's been out 10 years, had an expansion, and tons of mods.

Exactly I loved the beta.

The game is more detailed than I was expecting!

I am also amazed on how much information and data the game gives you on your city.

I was finally able to please all the sims for the first time ever!

Then menus are finally streamlined and easy to read

This game is heavily focused on the simulation side.

I mean an expansion pack on the city building side would be nice.

I was also able to upgrade my city hall 3 times.

I don't understand the complaints about how easy it is to make money.

Most of us use the money cheats to keep our cities flush with cash until they turn a huge profit.

Only 6 weeks to the launch... I don't know if I can make it

[iowahawkeyedave 8]

I had a good laugh when my time was up and it dumped me onto the Origin pre-order screen. While I knew it was going to be $60.00, after playing around in the beta (*cough* demo, marketing move, *cough*) and then seeing the price tag in cold hard print, it made me laugh.

I'm sorry but this to me is only a little bit better than CXL 2012, and only a furlong better than a Facebook game to me. It lacks details completely and utterly. While it's got quite a few good things going for it, overall it's more of a facebook simcity style game than it is a real simcity style game.

It's not so much that it doesn't live up to SimCity 4, but rather that it doesn't live up to a SimCity game at all IMHO. Oh well, they can never take SC4 away from us, we can continue to play that as long as we please, unlike this one that they could pull the servers 12 months after buying it and be left with a $60.00 placeholder graphics in our Origin games list.

If this is taking the game back to it's roots, they dug way too deep.

To me, it's still better than societies.

It lacks details how so? It is a closed beta with a 1 hour time limit and not even all the buildings are available to be built. Of course it lacks details. It's only really a one hour demo tease not even a closed beta.

It's a more solid base to expand upon than Societies was, that's for sure. Can't really expect it to live up to SC4 since that's been out 10 years, had an expansion, and tons of mods.

Exactly I loved the beta.

The game is more detailed than I was expecting!

I am also amazed on how much information and data the game gives you on your city.

I was finally able to please all the sims for the first time ever!

Then menus are finally streamlined and easy to read

This game is heavily focused on the simulation side.

I mean an expansion pack on the city building side would be nice.

I was also able to upgrade my city hall 3 times.

I don't understand the complaints about how easy it is to make money.

Most of us use the money cheats to keep our cities flush with cash until they turn a huge profit.

Only 6 weeks to the launch... I don't know if I can make it

I agree with you. I loved the beta too.l

Just finished the 1 hour playtime, and it's much more detailed than I thought, just digging into the graphs.

I can't wait until the game is released. It'll get even better when modding starts.

I found that I always spent all my money in the beta. The only thing cheaper really is that zoning is free.

[cirugo 1,889]

i don't get why you guys think it lacks detail...

i found it far more detailed than simcity 4

i like how you can add modules to the buildings

building a city hall is now worth it and the modules you can add to it not only make it look cool but add functionality

..am i missing something?

yeah, the city part...

[iowahawkeyedave 8]

i don't get why you guys think it lacks detail...

i found it far more detailed than simcity 4

i like how you can add modules to the buildings

building a city hall is now worth it and the modules you can add to it not only make it look cool but add functionality

..am i missing something?

yeah, the city part...

That's odd, I made a city just fine. Pretty hard to make a big city in 1 hour's time with many of the buildings locked.

[macvirt 361]

So I needed a bus. Turns out I need not worry about traffic or analysis or anything. Just turn that on, and bus stops are automagically placed.

*facepalm*

[cirugo 1,889]

i don't get why you guys think it lacks detail...

i found it far more detailed than simcity 4

i like how you can add modules to the buildings

building a city hall is now worth it and the modules you can add to it not only make it look cool but add functionality

..am i missing something?

yeah, the city part...

That's odd, I made a city just fine. Pretty hard to make a big city in 1 hour's time with many of the buildings locked.

pretty hard to make a big city period with the limitations they've put on the game.

[Techleo 18]

Well just got my key. Really curious to see if my expectations have been met. Honestly I have wanted a sense of resource management since the beginning. They pretty much added all the elements I wanted. Now to see if my dream Simcity matches my expectations.

PS guys, IGN is giving out keys.

[peterkl 3]

I have got the key and installed the game, but still cant get in

[Cob92 360]

I would say that I found it thoroughly enjoyable, and quite challenging actually. Only time will tell if the challenge holds up, but this new SimCity so far seems to be deeper and more engaging than SC4 (especially in the trailer park/small town phase). What it has lost in breadth, it makes up for in depth.